Virgin Galactic Retires 'Unity,' Plans Bigger Replacement

Unity took a pilot and four passengers to an altitude of 54.4 miles, just shy of the Kármán line.

Russ Niles

Tuesday, June 11, 2024 at 01:56 PM ET

Verified

Edited By: tccjeremy

Key Takeaways:

Virgin Galactic has retired its VSS Unity space tourism vehicle after its seventh flight.
New, larger Delta-class vehicles are expected to begin operations in 2026, leading to a two-year hiatus in flights.
The company aims to achieve profitability by increasing flight frequency with the new vehicles and an optimized mothership to serve its customer backlog and raise ticket prices.

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Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity space tourism vehicle has been retired after its seventh flight on Saturday, and it will be at least two years before replacement craft are ready.

Unity took a pilot and four passengers to an altitude of 54.4 miles, just shy of the Kármán line (62 miles) commonly considered to the be the edge of space. It was Unity’s seventh passenger flight in less than a year, and the craft has served its purpose, according to an arstechnica report.